20 March 06
Three Years On
We attended a peace vigil yesterday in Davis marking the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
I have felt increasingly helpless over the course of these years. We were not able to stop the madness before it started; getting out now seems impossible. So many people dead; so many hatreds kindled; so many missing limbs. It’s overwhelming. Hope seems distant, a dream. The thing with bedraggled feathers, shot through, torn.
Yet:
Fadhil Al-Kazily, an Iraqi-born American who lives here in Davis, just last week lost his 81-year-old uncle in Mosul. His uncle was driving to pick up his wife. He was shot in his car by American soldiers.
Onstage with Fadhil was Laurie Loving, a lifetime peace activist whose son enlisted despite her attempts to dissuade him and who is now stationed in Mosul. Her horror is that her son might have been—could easily have been—the one who shot Fadhil’s uncle.
Joining them was Pat Sheehan, father of Casey Sheehan and former husband of Cindy. On St. Patrick’s Day, he said, was when the 1st Cavalry was due to come home. Not Casey. I can’t expect you to keep him in your hearts, he said, but please keep him in your minds. Do not forget. Don’t stop.
They all held hands onstage and said how the administration would like them all to hate each other. No, they said. We will not let that happen. Ever.
Fadhil stressed that occupying troops must leave NOW if there’s any hope of fixing this, and that the only way that could happen was if we all continued to work hard for peace.
May peace become our priority, not an afterthought. May it be something we work for instead of expect to happen on its own. May we not fall to despair. May we reach across divides and work together.
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Big questions: Is it possible for us to create a society of peace and tolerance? Will Bush ever be held accountable? Are we safe from an even bigger war? Does the frightening recent news of the failing Earth’s biosphere signal the beginning of the breakdown of human society and the onslaught of greater strife? What exactly are we preserving for our children? Will they grow up in a world gone mad or manage to break through all the old feudal strangleholds and learn to live peacably together?
I have recently joined a women’s Peace Circle. The idea is to pair up with a sister circle elsewhere in the world, and work on projects together. I have no idea where this will go but it feels like doing something rather than nothing. The organization is Peace x Peace (pronounced Peace by Peace). We’ll see.
When I read that you had joined a “women’s” peace group I thought, “That’s nice. It’s always important to shepherd peace however you can.” But at the same time I felt part of me cut off. Because I am a man. So I can’t join the group or entertain the thought of seeing all people, men and women, joined together in harmony. Because there will always be these needs for divisions. Which are the very reasons for all the conflict in the first place. And there is this silent condemnation whenever a group separates itself from those with whom they are a part that the others are the reason for all the wrongs in the first place. And so people find more reasons for divisions and points of conflict.
But the painful question also is, why don’t men come together to form covens of peace? Why am I drawn to the cooperation of women but must live in the chest thumping world of being a man? Why must I endure the recent all-hail-to-women Blog Against Sexism Day in which I read not a single blog entry talking about men’s sides of the issues? Not a single discussion, even from men, of how it feels to be on this side of the fence or of how painful it is to be a man who does his best to be a good human to all he meets but still must keep his mouth shut when it comes to women’s issues? Whatever must be done or spoken about when it comes to the sexism question, my biggest question is: “Why the hell don’t men talk about it?” Then, “Why won’t women let men talk about it?” Why do I even have to fear asking these questions in public? Why am I more afraid to talk about women’s issues than I am talking about racism?